Orion Ranch Observatory Blog

While I don’t want to clutter up my website with a bunch of ads everywhere, in some respects these days it seems like they make a site feel more complete!  At a minimum they’re more dynamic than just static pages.  I haven’t decided what I’m going to do, but figured I could try out a Google ad block here and see what happens.

Well, judging by the preview, nothing!  Not sure if there’s a way to allow the necessary scripts to run in a post or not.  I’ll have to play with it.

Hmm.  Added a plug-in to handle this, which is essentially embedding the same code.  Maybe Google just hasn’t updated my account yet to let this start working!  Let’s see what happens.

I’ve finally been getting a few good nights of imaging, and have been making some progress with my post processing.  I’m  still taking wide field shots with my AT-80LE, and now have the field flattener installed and working correctly, so things are looking pretty good.  I’ve just posted an image of the nebular regions around Messier 78 (NGC 2068) reflection nebula which includes NGC 2064, NGC 2067, and NGC 2071 as well. This region also contains McNeil’s variable nebula.  With the dark dust nebula running through the middle of the region, this is a really beautiful region near the Horsehead nebula in Orion.  The image was stacked from nine hours of 10 minute subs taken over three nights with my AT-80LE and Celestron Nightscape camera.

I’ve decided to add some additional photo gallery sections for some of my other types of photography.  I don’t know what I’ll add or when, but I’ve added a section for all the various animals I catch around the ranch or on travel, as well as one for architectural and nightscape photos.

I managed to find a couple of windows to capture some images of Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2.  The first is a wide field showing Lovejoy west of Orion, visible as the green dot if you look just to the right of the center line about 1/5th of the way down the image.

About a week later we had a break in the clouds suitable for some real astrophotography.  Here’s a stack of about 100 one-minute subs of Lovejoy.  You can clearly see the unusual double bow-wave like tail of the comet.

My Ambient Weather WS-2090 was failing after about a year of use, and had plenty of intermittent problems throughout the year, so I decided to invest in something better.  Unfortunately that something better is also something much more expensive.  On the other hand, if you compare the old one to the new one, just based on the difference in size then I guess it’s worth several times the price!  We missed out on our rain chances on Sunday, so I’m still waiting to see how well the rain gauge works.  Hopefully this will last me a long time.

Ok, I just finally upgraded to the latest version of the Gallery 3 software. So far things look normal on the gallery pages, but please let me know if you see something that doesn’t look like it should.

Thanks,

Michael

So a few weeks ago I added one of the last finishing touches to the observatory, adding my new faux wood blinds.  I had to get some replacement parts to install the valance correctly.  Here’s the final result.

So in the process of developing custom automation for all of the components in the observatory, I’ve built the first of several focus motors using a 3-D printer I bought last October (and finally received in February!). The control uses an Arduino Nano to give me USB serial interface to it, with a cheap 5V stepper motor and driver (under $15 total off eBay). I designed and printed the gears and housing using my Robo 3-D printer. The whole assembly is designed to interface to the slow focus knob on my FeatherTouch focuser. I developed the firmware to have full variable speed control with variable acceleration and precision targeting. With the gearing ratios involved, I can position much more accurately than the scope will actually ever resolve to. Currently I only have a simple manual control program for the PC, but I’ll eventually finish writing the ASCOM driver for it as well. Enjoy!

Printing the base of the focus motor assembly on my new Robo 3-D printer.

Finished bottom of the housing that will hold the control PCBs for the focus motor. Not perfect, but good enough!

Printing the enclosure top and motor mount for the focus motor assembly.

Finished motor mount lid.

Various views of the combined top and base of the focus motor housing.

The internal grid was printed at a very low density, but the exterior layers didn’t do a good job of hiding it.

An Arduino Nano control board (blue) provides USB control of a stepper motor driver board (green) that then drives a 5V stepper motor. A power inlet allows running the motor off of a 12V supply for higher impulse current allowing the motor to run considerably faster with higher torque.

Installing the cover on the base. The parts are then heat welded together to create a solid assembly.

The focus motor mounts using two of the three screws on the Celestron focuser and uses two printed gears to drive the fine (10x) focus knob on a FeatherTouch focuser.

I’m proud to announce the completion of the new Orion Ranch Observatory logo. I think this captures the spirit of the observatory and its history, as well as my memories as a child looking up at one of the most easily identifiable constellations. Look for this to start appearing throughout the website as time goes on.

Orion Ranch Observatory Logo

I was always a science nerd growing up, and even though my physics R&D lab in grad school was on the same floor as the astronomy department, I never even had time to take an astronomy class in college! Years later my wife and I are walking through Fry’s and see a cheap little Celestron telescope on clearance for $10. We decide to buy it and said if we ever used it, we’d buy something better. It sat in the foyer for a year or two and one summer evening we’re looking up from the pool and wondering what that bright star is overhead. I said, “Well, we have a telescope; let’s find out.” After fiddling and fiddling with it, I managed to get a great view of Jupiter. However, by the time my wife could look, it was moving out of field. So her response was, “That’s it! We’re buying a better telescope tomorrow!” Thus began a saga starting with a NexStar 8se, and ending up with the recent completion of Orion Ranch Observatory! You can see both the observatory and the culprit that started it all here at www.orionranchobservatory.com.